Broken Antenna Wire at back of radio
 

Anyone ever have the antenna wire and retaining clip fail on their MINI? I returned home after repairs from Mini of Portland and my radio was not working. I thought maybe they had accidentally disconnected the antenna.

The service writer told me to bring the car back which I did. He called me later in the day and said there would be no charge for the repair.

A week later the service manager calls and tells me it will be nearly $1,900 to repair. He says's they didn't break the wire at the back of the radio, it was a coincidence that it happened while they were working on the car, and the breakage was due to "environmental degradation." The car is a 2004 R53.

I have searched this forum and Google in general and cannot find any mention of this kind of failure. Any thoughts!

Thanks,

Randy

Going to move you to the Gen1 Stock Problems/Issues section.

What was being done when the cable broke? Sounds like two choices, get a length of cable with the metal male fitting in place at a junkyard to splice in or get a cheap aftermarket antenna kit. I would think the jacket on the OEM cable is similar to a coax. On the aftermarket kit, might be able to get a magnetic type that could be placed on the front and then the cable routed through the black plastic vent by the wipers on its way through the firewall.

What actually is wrong with it? If it is just a broken antenna connection then $1900 is crazy. I've seen some really negative stuff with TZ @ MINI and older MINIs. Maybe he gets his kicks torturing older MINI car owners.

$1900 could get you an entire new fitted stereo with speakers/amp and lots of change leftover.

If you have radio/antenna installation needs I'll recommend a guy in Vancouver who will wow you with service and price. Let me know.

take it to a car audio guy and see what they say ... can the ant' cable be THAT unique? I'd imagine a new connector could be put on the cable even if a piece needs to be spliced in as prior post mentions ....

One of the nice things about a GEN1 is the head unit is a standard size and much more easily replaced than later cars where the audio is buried and 'integrated' ..... (hopefully you don't have the HK system tho as that does complicate things a bit . . )